The Pink Lady
by ArthursShadow
Summary: Tora and his baby sister Ren are orphans, living with their aunt Utau when Tora finds a room with a few curious paintings. On them is a pink haired beauty with golden eyes... Tora's eyes. Who is she? And what happened to their parents? One shot.


**Hi! My newest fanfic! I hope. Some characters from myself, some that don' belong to me, rights to their owners, and... mostly: not mine, Peach-pit's. I wanted this to be a sequel to my story 'Before it is too late'. As mentioned before, I only own the idea. If you like it, please leave a review (constructive criticism very welcome :) ) My one and only author's note-I hope. Wanna know something? Ask me! ^^ love, Sigy Artyn**

The Pink Lady- The discovery

He'd thought he knew the mansion quite well, having lived there is whole life. But this corridor was new to him, with the clean, clear floor, the white walls and the little alcove with cushions at the big window. It wasn't a big corridor, more of a room, but very well cared for. He thought that was weird; shouldn't a secret room that was hidden behind a closet- or rather, a 'walk-through-closet' anyway- be dusty and unused? This seemed to be cleaner than aunt Utau's room. Poor uncle Kukai.

He'd wandered towards the windows first, admiring the garden from a new point of view, and because of that he only saw the paintings when he turned around.

At first he thought he was seeing pictures, so realistic and beautiful the figures were that adorned the four paintings. He walked closer and looked at them, marvelling at the way the brushes of the paintbrush were invisible. After all, he'd grown up in the top riches of Japan, with his world-know superstar aunt and sports icon uncle. It was not that they had been spoiled too much or anything such as that, but he knew high class art when he saw it.

He stepped backwards just a little so he'd be able to admire the paintings even better. The late afternoon sun shone in through the window, enlightening the room as it was set on fire.

On the first one was his aunt Utau, posing with a very curious looking girl with pink hair and golden eyes, ready to start a concert. He moved to the next one, a slightly bigger painting of the same pink haired girl and Utau but now they were joined by some others. He was suprised when he could recognise them all easily, all but one. There was Kukai, the short blonde girl must be a younger aunt Rima, just as the purple haired guy must be uncle Nagi. There was aunt Yaya, holding candy as she did now and uncle Tadase. He almost didn't recognise the last one for except the eyes and the hair the clothes were completely different. These days Hotori Tadase would mainly wear pink and white for a reason obvious to the boy. But that was a detail he didn't care about. The unknown man was much more interesting. He was close to the pinkette, who was in the middle of the group of friends, a hand on her shoulder. Also, where the others looked at the painter, this man looked at the girl only and from his expression he could see a longing love that the girl didn't seem to notice. He felt a sudden urge of protectiveness for the innocent looking pink girl. One thing that he noticed, that seemed to jump at him, was that the teen possessed a heap of unruly dark blue hair. The same shade as his own locks were.

Not wanting to dwell on the fact too long, he moved too the next painting, getting a shock. A few years had been skipped and the pink haired girl that seemed to be the focus off all the paintings had grown up. A lot, because the garment she had on was a wedding dress. Even though she was all dressed up nothing could hide the fact that she looked ill- or scratch that, downright sickly. Worry clouded his mind and he found himself wishing it was just some bad cold and she'd be healthy again in no time. But he was a smart boy, smarter than good for him was sometimes and he knew that if she was marrying despite a bad condition could only mean she was running out of time to do so, and the amount of glowing happiness he could read off her face wouldn't change that.

There was only one more painting left and his mind tortured itself with visions of the girl surrounded by white roses in an eternal slumber. He hurried forward but skidded to a sudden stop. It was clear that she had survived, a narrow escape judging by her fragile look, but the sickness didn't radiate from her anymore. Happiness did, rightly so for she appeared to be several months pregnant. She was so beautiful that he couldn't tore his eyes with all the force in the world from her face, so shining angelic and suddenly he wished that if he was going to be an orphan anyway, she'd be his dream mother.

"Kukai, where is he!" Utau was worried, very worried indeed. It was nothing for the boy to stay away for so long.

Kukai shrugged. "Yuka-chan said he had been heading to the east-wing the last time she saw him, isn't that right sweetheart?" He looked at his four-year-old daughter with the yellow hair and emerald eyes. She nodded.

"The east wing?" The new information hadn't calmed Utau in the least. She'd started to go white. Had she closed the door to the closet this morning? She had, hadn't she?

"Yeah, that one. But don't worry, it's not like he'll discover..." Kukai was half way his sentence when he noticed his wife wasn't there anymore.

"Great." he mumbled to himself and set off after her, their daughter following him suit. He, soccer player of international level, would not be out run by his pregnant super star wife.

Tora was woken up abruptly when the door to the secret Room of the Pink Lady -he'd decided to call her that- swung open with such great force that the bang probably could be heard through the whole mansion. Quickly he realised that, while looking at the painting he'd fallen asleep an since he was so obviously late for dinner- it was starting to get dark in the room- aunt Utau had gone in search for him. Uh oh. Not good. He'd started towards the alcove to hide himself but he was to late; as a rabbit in headlights he was caught in the beam of light that from the corridor through the closet fell. Golden eyes met purple ones and he could read sadness in them.

Before any of them could say anything other people arrived, namely his uncle and his niece, the former carrying the latter. Utau seemed to wake up from the reverie she'd sunk in and stepped in the room, flipping on the lights Tora hadn't noticed. She didn't looked at him again but walked up to the last painting, softly touching the cheek of the Pink Lady. He stared at her. Why was she allowed to touch her?

"Amu" she whispered so softly he wasn't sure he'd heard correctly. Was that her name?

Kukai had walked in too, going to stand beside his beloved and placing an arm around her waist. Yuka had joined them, clutching her mothers leg and he suddenly felt very alone, whishing for his baby sister Ren who was probably sleeping in the nursery. She was almost a year old. Often he wondered why he couldn't remember his parents if they'd left them only after her birth. He must've been three, there was no way he could not, but still, only the impression of a soft hand on his forehead and someone ruffling his hair was all he had left of them.

Utau gazed back at him, at his lost an forlorn expression and sighed.

"Come here." she said. "Let me tell you off your parents."

Changing her mind she led him to the alcove, Kukai and Yuka following as a pair of well trained dogs trailing after their owner. The thought almost made him laugh.

Staring out of the window, but not without looking at the paintings ever so often she started to tell a tale.

"I had an older brother whom I loved very much. His name was Ikuto and he played the violin very good, just like our father who had taught him. When we were still very young, our father disappeared and left us. Our mother wasn't very strong and she remarried to a dreadful guy who demanded Ikuto to work for him. He wanted to obtain a magical egg that granted wishes called the Embryo. I didn't know why he wanted it, but now I know that it was for a young boy, his grandson, whose parents had died. He was very cruel and we suffered a lot. I ended up working for him to, trying to help Ikuto by extracting X-eggs with singing.

Now you have to know that in every childs heart an egg resides, filled with the dream of that child. When that child loses faith in the dream, the feelings turn and it becomes an X-egg. The bad man hoped to find the Embryo that way. But there were some that opposed him; the Guardians of Seiyo Gakuen. All of these had an into a character hatched egg that helped them to fight the X-eggs, but they weren't able to purify them. Until Amu came along. She moved into town and from the first day she was involved in the war between the bad man and the Guardians. She became the Joker of the Guardians and her four chara's, guardian characters that come from your heart's egg, helped her to clean the negative energy of the X-eggs. She fought for us, for Ikuto and me and she freed us both from the compagny that had trapped us. It was then that my brother fell in love with her. Everyone could not help but love her; even I who hated her at first. She became my first friend. But Ikuto was completely captivated by her and even when he left to fing our father he thought of her.

When I finally prompted him to return five years later it was because something terrible had happened. Amu had been diagnosed with a brain tumor and she was dying. Luckily he came back on time and finally they confessed their love. They even married." She smiled at this while Kukai silently explained what a brain tumor was to Yuka. Utau waited a bit before she continued, making sure they were silent again. Tora's eyes, those golden hue's, never left hers and she couldn't help but seeing another pair of these eyes looking at her.

"She survived the operation and recovered slowly, but surely. They lived some time at the coast for the climate. Shortly before she had the operation she had started to sing along with me in a band we called 'Blue Sky', but later on we changed the name. She had to stop, but a few months later she joined me again only to resign. She had discovered she was pregnant.

A baby boy was born. That, Tora-kun, was you. That painting there, that's Amu when she was carrying you."

He stood up, wonder in his eyes. She, the Pink Lady, was his mother? Then were was his father? Looking more closely at the paintings he saw what he had missed before, the figure in the background with the violin in the one, the hand on her shoulder in the other. He was there, his father, midnight blue locks over dark blue eyes. His sisters eyes. He turned around.

"Then... Then why isn't she, I mean, were are they now?" he asked.

Utau looked at Kukai, a quick hidden look he still picked up.

She sighed. "You were three, Amu had just given birth to Ren when they received a message from your aunt Ami, Amu's sister, that their father and mother had had an accident in America. It was hard for them to leave you both behind, so shortly after Ren's birth but they couldn't take you. I offered to watch you and they left."

Tears stung in her eyes but she didn't wanted to show them.

"What? What happened then?" his voice was small, afraid off what might come.

"Their plane crashed. Nor Ikuto, nor Amu was found. They searched for weeks, every location the rescue people could think off. But they weren't to be found. When we wanted to tell you, you got so much in shock you lost memory of the events soon after.

I'm sorry. I'm so very, very sorry. I miss them so much!" She started crying, the pain even after a year and a half still fresh and Kukai comforted her, tears in his eyes as well.

Tora was dimly aware that his knees hit the floor. Utau's words repeated in his head, swimming in circles with no end. _They weren't to be found. Not found. Not Found._

The world seemed to blur as he gazed up to the smiling face of his mother.


End file.
